Electronic edition published by Cultural Heritage Langauge Technologies (with permission from Charles Scribners and Sons) and funded by the National Science Foundation International Digital Libraries Program. This text has been proofread to a low degree of accuracy. It was converted to electronic form using data entry.
WOODWARD, JOHN (b. Derbyshire, England, 1
May 1665; d. London, England, 25 April 1728),
geology, mineralogy, botany.
seems to have told Lhwyd that he had already
formed a theory explaining the origin of fossils,
then still a matter for debate. In 1690 Lhwyd
wrote to a friend stating that Woodward seemed
well informed for his age but that he doubted that
he was sufficiently experienced to satisfy others on
such a debatable matter. This visit to Gloucestershire,
however, led Woodward to adopt the study
of geology and mineralogy as one of his major interests
for the rest of his life. Meanwhile he continued
to study medicine and botany.
In 1692, at the age of twenty-seven, Woodward
was appointed professor of physic at Gresham
College, London. His candidature had been supported
by Barwick and Plot, among others. Evidently
his abilities had now become more widely
known. Barwick stated in his testimonial that
Woodward “had made the greatest advance not
only in physick, anatomy, botany, . . . but likewise
in all other useful learning of any man I
ever knew of his age . . .,” and that he was “very
much respected upon this account by persons of
the greatest judgement and learning.” Not long after
his appointment Woodward took up residence
at Gresham College. He was elected fellow of the
Royal Society in 1693, and in 1695 was awarded
the degree of doctor of medicine by special dispensation
of Thomas Tenison, archbishop of Canterbury.
In 1696 Woodward was granted an M.D. by
the University of Cambridge, and he was elected
fellow of the College of Physicians in March
1703. As a lecturer in Gresham College his obligations
were relatively light, and he established himself
as a practicing physician at least as early as
1709. In 1718 he published his only medical work,
The State of Physick and of Diseases . . . More
Particularly of the Smallpox. The treatment he
recommended contradicted the views of some
eminent contemporary physicians, notably Richard
Mead, and led to a duel between the latter and
Woodward.
Woodward continued to reside at Gresham College
until his death. He spent much time cataloging
his geological and mineralogical specimens, and his
museum was often visited by other naturalists,
who have left accounts of it. Contemporary records
show that, at least in later life, Woodward,
although not without friends, was a man of unattractive
character, conceited, quarrelsome, and
dogmatic. He quarreled with the council of the
Royal Society and made enemies of other naturalists.
His contributions to science were nevertheless
of considerable importance.
Woodward made a valuable contribution to botanical
science as a result of a series of systematic
experiments on plant nutrition carried out in 1691
and 1692, a detailed account of which was published
by the Royal Society in 1699. The most
important result of this investigation was a clear
demonstration that the greater part of the water
absorbed by a growing plant is exhaled through its
pores into the atmosphere. This was the first demonstration
of transpiration. Woodward also
claimed that the food of plants is not water, but the
mineral substances dissolved in the water.
Woodward is chiefly remembered for his contributions
to the earth sciences. In his first contribution,
Essay Toward a Natural History of the Earth
(1695), which he claimed was based on his own
observations, Woodward assumed that the earth
formerly had been submerged beneath a universal
deluge, the waters of which had originated in a
central abyss within the earth. These waters had
dissolved, or disintegrated and held in suspension,
all the stony and mineral matter forming the outer
crust of the earth. At the same time all the animals
and plants then living were submerged in the waters
but were not destroyed beyond recognition.
From the confused mass that had formed, the matter
in suspension, both organic and inorganic, subsided
in an order determined, so far as was possible,
by the specific gravity of the individual components.
Thus a stratigraphic succession was formed
in which the specific gravity of both the organic
remains and the rock matrix in which they occurred
decreased gradually in passing upward in
the succession.
Woodward asserted unequivocally that the fossil
organic remains that had been found in rocks were
definitely the remains of living animals or plants, a
view not universally held at that time. The term
“fossil” was then widely used to denote anything
that was dug out of the earth, whether mineral substances
or organic remains. In Woodward's terminology
stones and minerals were “native” fossils,
and organic remains were “extraneous” fossils.
Woodward had observed that particular rock
formations might contain a different assemblage of
extraneous fossil forms to those occurring in beds
above or below the formation. While he realized
that this observation required explanation, it is
perhaps not surprising that he failed to recognize
the true explanation; and the one he offered was
soon criticized.
Woodward's Essay was widely read both in
Great Britain and, in translation, in other European
countries. The great Swiss naturalist J. J.
Scheuchzer was converted by the Essay to belief